Help Us Replace Stolen Sports Equipment

On Monday evening, June 18th, thieves broke into the Rickey Henderson Field area and stole a huge amount of baseball and soccer equipment from storage containers near the baseball and soccer fields. They vandalized baseball field fences, broke gates, and forced open shipping containers belonging to the baseball and soccer groups. They stole field maintenance equipment and tools used by volunteers to maintain the baseball field. They stole a truck and chipper parked inside the school grounds, driving it across the baseball outfield in the middle of the night and exiting the field by forcing their way through outfield fence gates.

New Soccer uniforms and cleats were among the items stolen from the Soccer container.

Big ticket items stolen from the field maintenance container included the remote control for the scoreboard, a self-propelled lawn mower for infield mowing, a gas-powered weed whacker, many general maintenance tools including cordless power tools, screwdriver and socket sets, shovels, hoes, hammers, extension cords, etc.

The Baseball team lost whole sets of catcher’s equipment, a brand new L-screen, many hitting and fielding drill aids, dozens of new baseballs.

All-in-all, these are devastating losses. The baseball and soccer facilities here are the result of amazing civic engagement, volunteerism, cooperation and community collaboration and have served to benefit thousands of Oakland kids over the last decade.

Please consider helping these programs, through the GoFundMe link below, or the the “Donate” buttons to the right, to secure these storage areas against future theft and replace some of the lost equipment.

The Oakland Athletics have generously pledged to match the total donation amount up to $5,000.

Thank you for your generosity and for your support of Oakland youth baseball and soccer.